Mavericks stun NBA, trade Luka Doncic to Lakers
Wait, what?
We were promised a dead NBA trade deadline — the new CBA practically guaranteed it. The second apron lorded over teams like the Iron Curtain. Yet, much to my chagrin, and this will certainly increase my editor’s smugness — the 24/7, 365 days a year era of the NBA did it again.
The Dallas Mavericks traded their superstar point forward Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis in a trade that the Utah Jazz helped facilitate. The Lakers get Doncic along with Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris. Dallas gets Davis, Max Christie, and the Lakers 2029 first round pick. The Utah Jazz get Jalen Hood-Schifino and two second round picks.
Before we launch into the customary hysteria and hyperbole with the “this is the craziest trade in NBA history” discourse, a reminder that this is what happens in the National Basketball Association: star players get traded. Wilt Chamberlain was traded. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was traded. Mose Malone was traded. These are some of the best ever to touch the hardwood and they were all traded in their primes. This is what happens!
Now that I have prefaced what I am about to say with that — this is a “Holy shit!” jaw-dropping trade.
Dallas just traded a 25-year old superstar with career averages of 28-8-8, fresh off a finals appearance, and who has an argument for being, at bare minimum, the third best player in the world. They just traded away a player you build a franchise around for a decade. A player who hadn’t even requested a trade. And Dallas did this because they were worried about his conditioning and his looming 5-year $344 million supermax contract? What!?
This saga has only just begun and it is already so rich with intrigue and drama. It really is the perfect NBA story in today’s NBA.
The report that Dallas didn’t even shop Luka to anyone else is bewildering. I don’t grasp how it is not in your best interest to at least try to start a bidding war for Luka Doncic if you are the Mavericks GM Nico Harrison. I promise you, you would have gotten more than a 31-year-old Anthony Davis and a 2029 first round pick. That’s not even Mikal Bridges value. That’s not even Dejounte Murray value! So much for Simmons’ trade value column.
The philosophy doesn’t make sense. Nico Harrison says “I believe that defense wins championships,” Mavs GM Nico Harrison told ESPN regarding his motivation to trade Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis. “I believe that getting an All-Defensive center and an All-NBA player with a defensive mindset gives us a better chance. We’re built to win now and in the future.”
Where is he connecting “win now and in the future” with trading away a top 3 NBA player in the league for an older, injury prone big man? You already have Dereck Lively and Daniel Gafford, two big men who fit really well into your defensive scheme. Now you want to add another big? Anthony Davis is a great, hall-of-fame player. But he is on a downward trajectory when compared to Luka, who, and I can’t emphasize this enough, just took you to the NBA Finals.
Logically, it’s completely illogical. But again, this is the history of the NBA.
We are at a point in this story where we can only be conspiracy theorists. What do they know that we don’t know? Are his knees deteriorating like Todd Gurley or Kawhi Leonard? Is he a chronic smoker? Is he doing cocaine? Everybody in the NBA was doing it in the 80’s — so what? Did he commit a crime? Is Trump sending him to Guantanamo?
It's a damning indictment of Doncic by Dallas. For them to consider trading Doncic for AD a supposed win-now trade, they are telling us “we can’t win with that guy. He’s not good enough.” It’s shocking. Seriously, they’re trusting Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis over Luka Doncic? No one should put their faith in Kyrie Irving.
It doesn’t add up. It doesn’t pass the smell test. I have a hard time believing that they did this without some hint that Doncic didn’t want to stay in Dallas or some rift between Doncic and the organization.
As for the Lakers it starts with LeBron, just like nearly everything in the NBA has revolved around LeBron for the last 20 years. The Lakers didn’t tell him this was happening. They blindsided him. There was a time where no team, not even the Lakers, would make decisions without Lebron’s knowledge or blessing. The Lakers just did that, and not only that, but they did it with the guy Lebron hand picked to win a title in Los Angeles with. That signals to me that the Lakers are moving on. LeBron had been the most powerful figure in franchises for the last decade, and now the Lakers are pushing back on that. The Lakers are telling Lebron, “You delivered, thank you for the title. Thank you for dragging us out of the gutter. But you’re 40-years-old, we’ve done everything you have asked, we drafted your kid, and it’s time for us to put in the succession plan.”
It’s a great succession plan too. They had Lebron James, who is the smartest player on the court, can run your offense, and use his physicality to impose his will on the opposing team any time he wants. He is going to pass the torch to Luka Doncic, who is the smartest player on the court, can run your offense, and who also uses his physicality to impose his will on the opposing team any time he wants.
Would I call them a contender? No. They don’t have any interior size and they traded away their defense with Anthony Davis. Maybe they can make smaller trades to shore up their remaining glaring issues, I don’t know. I’m skeptical. But in the short term, they are immediately dangerous, and in the long term they have their franchise center piece.
It is unbelievable that the Lakers are once again the beneficiary of another team’s folly. This is the history of the Lakers. Good fortune falls right into their lap.
They trade for Wilt. They trade for Kareem. They trade the rights to sign Gail Goodrich for the pick that becomes Magic Johnson. They trade for Kobe Bryant. They trade Pau Gasol in a deal that is very similar to the one that just transpired involving Doncic. I’m not even including how they signed Shaq and Lebron, two of the most dominant players ever.
They are the Sirens of the NBA. They somehow continue to lure these teams into dealing with them, only to dash these hopefuls into the rocks.
Convenient that I went dark during the final act of the Lion’s season, isn’t it?